folks , i spoke today with a fellow who had CO poisoning from sleeping in a room with a furnace (wood add on) seems he was living in the basement of his mom-in law's where an old oil furnace and the add on wood unit were co-located, chimney install was a cobb job,(unpermitted, uninspected install) done before his arrival, noone else in the house was affected. seems like the stove would burn ok once he got the flue heated up, my theory is that the flue was cooling in the coal stage and the unit was backpuffing when the oil furnace kicked on to take over from the dying wood fire in the wee hours of the morning. CO detector (at least a decade old) never went off. flue is a prefab exterior unchased triplewall at 32 ft from basement. single wall stove connector pipe and a TEE which was outside but not class A. uninsulated, then the triplewall up the side of the house. guy was lucky to be able to talk to me today. we identified his issues but i seriously believe he will not be using the stove anymore as long as he is sleeping in that room. the unit was fine , flue was biggest problem. CO detector was way outdated, and the oil furnace was pulling from the basement as well so you have competing flues. guy is SERIOUSLY lucky not to be getting prepped for a long dirt nap.
several lessons to be learned
1. NEVER install a combustion heating device in a sleeping room, it may be safe when working properly but any machine can break , and that one time could spell disaster!
2. CO detectors/smoke detectors, a MUST HAVE and need to be replaced on schedule. most will only have a usable lifespan of no more than 5 years. and as stated in other posts in this forum , the "test" button only tests the alarm , it does not test the detector!
3. NEVER assume an install is done correctly unless you were there , and are certain it was properly done and inspected! always have a wett or similarly certified chimney professional inspect any flue system prior to putting it into use. any new install into an existing flue system requires a class 2 inspection to be done prior to install, and i strongly recommend the same with anyone moving into a home with an existing system or flue that you intend to use.
folks, we dont put these warnings in manuals to make it hard on the public, these warnings are there in the hopes that they be adhered to for your SAFETY, people die from CO poisoning every year, from a multitude of products , and for a multitude of reasons. CO scares the bajeebers (for lack of a stronger term that i can put in print) outta me. my phone call this morning had me shook up pretty good even though i was actually talking to the "victim" and not someone else who was wondering why someone died in their house. speaking for the industry as a whole;bottom line PLEASE PLEASE! be safe , follow our instructions , heed our warnings, have your installs inspected , install and maintain the proper sensing devices, and operate our products in the manner they were designed to be used. you are inviting FIRE into your home, you have to respect that to be safe coexisting with it.
sorry for the rant , but safety is my buisness and unsafe things scare me.
